ABSTRACT
The rules of thumb proposed later could sensibly be applied to starting work in almost any field; in Cultural Studies they, and others like them, are essential; they are preliminary ‘ways of looking’. One good strain in Cultural Studies at any time will certainly be ‘from literature to society’; that is, from the use of literary-critical methods to many other aspects of popular culture. One thing is sure: the student should have an initial discipline outside Cultural Studies, an academic and intellectual training, and a severe one. The reluctance to make judgments is particularly rife in Cultural Studies. Some will accept no judgments of value between works long recognised as of sustained and continuing merit and the latest ephemera in the popular magazines, between a ‘classic’ symphony and the latest pop song. Before a fuller look is taken at the nature of literary criticism’s contributions to cultural studies a few provisos should be made.
